Our feelings on this sad anniversary are too mixed and too powerful for us to put into words. For many (but apparently not enough) of us, 9/11 was a life-changing and world-changing event.
We felt that nothing would be the same afterwards...and for us, that has remained absolutely true. The sights of that day are embedded in our psyche. The shock, despair, grief, and anger are now part of our DNA.
For other people, the effects haven't been as profound or prolonged. Whether it's a Muslim congresswoman shrugging off the horror by saying "some people did something," or college students who (when interviewed) can't even identify what month or day 9/11 occurred, the importance and impact of this event is hardly a universal constant anymore. That's sad and frightening.
But we don't have it in us to litigate the point today. We have our own thoughts and feelings, but believe that today is more about personal reflection than editorializing. We all have another 364 days a year to make our feelings and beliefs known...and we should use every one of them.
=======
For a retrospective of our 9/11 cartoons and commentaries from the past, just click this link.
37 comments:
every year i watch this...
http://www.fdnylodd.com/9-11-Never-Forget/Memorials/Blood-Of-Heroes.html
Never forget or forgive.
Fortunately, no one I knew or cared for suffered on that day, many, many others were sadly, not that fortunate. My office at the time was perhaps 3 miles due north of the Pentagon and in my mind can still even now see the huge billowing black cloud of smoke in the distance from the office window.
Realistically, this isn't going to happen, but in remembrance and to drive home the significance of this day to those too young/clueless, all news networks and social media providers could today and on other 9/11 anniversaries, suspend service from the time the first plane struck the World Trade Center to the last plane crashing in Pennsylvania.
My mother died about two weeks after 9/11 because the nationwide air travel embargo left her stranded in Maine, unable to get her regular cancer treatments and robbing her of at least six months of life.
I shall never forgive and never forget.
I was never a fan of the architectural design of the Twin Towers. To me, they were just plain ugly and had none of the Beaux Arts beauty of the Chrysler Building but 9/11 enshrined those Towers in my heart and I still want them built back higher.
I, too, will never forget.
My son was doing a trade with Cantor-Fitzgerald when the guy he was trading with said, "I think a bomb just went off."
It really bothers me that basically no one has been brought to account for this horrific act. I have read so many conflicting accounts on this and don't believe any of them from the FBI dropping the ball when notified of strange behavior on the ones taking pilots training to structural engineers and their Monday morning quarterbacking. It makes one wonder if those three thousand souls will rest in peace.
Like it was yesterday - all my workmates standing by the TV - the announcement that it was an accident - then the second plane. The ash and smoke. Total silence for almost an hour, none of us could find anything to say. The Falling Man - a nightmare image because it took an incomprehensibly large event and suddenly crystallized it, personalized it and reduced it to one image of one human being, an Everyman like all of us. NO I will never forget or forgive. NOR will I ever forget or forgive Hilary and Obunghole for another 9/11 when they watched in amusement as some of our finest people fought for their lives.
@ M MITCHELL MARMEL - I am so deeply sorry for your loss - I wish I knew something else to say. But may God grant your Mom peace and freedom from that horrible cruel disease; and may He damn the souls of all involved in committing that atrocity.
I'm not surprised at all that 9/11 is fading from the American memory. The same was true for Pearl Harbor, and THAT fit the prevailing political narrative of the day a lot longer than 9/11 has, yet many have no clue regarding the significance of 7 December 1941, or even the year 1941. Some of today's young people still vaguely recall something about a war...
May God rest the souls of those taken from us in that act, comfort those left behind, and may He impede the success of those who would perpetrate such acts.
Whether or not we knew someone who died on that day, all of our lives were forever affected if only because of the resulting increase of government intervention in our lives via Homeland Security and the TSA.
I will never forget and I shall never, ever forgive........
For those who weren't born when this tragedy took place, this has been relegated to something that happened in history.....if they're even taught that. Those of us who were alive and aware will most likely NEVER forget. A great and lasting sadness.
This picture of a couple holding hands all the way down reminds me of why all muslims should be deported from Ameria, or liquidated:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjt9-yF8MjkAhWFvJ4KHRwbDosQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.es%2Fpin%2F181973641167907684%2F&psig=AOvVaw1muP0Mnl-VYmWJgr8OXWe_&ust=1568294881610411
I shall never forget the event. Nor shall I forget the foul ideology of conquest, masquerading as a religion, which brought this event and so many others to our shores. I shall not forget the Christians throughout the mid-East who have suffered unspeakable horrors due to "some people doing something".
September 11 is also the anniversary of both Obama's horrid Benghazi folly, which occurred on the date of my loved wife's death. I have three reasons never to forget this date.
@Gee M- Wow...
@Fish Out of Water- My brother-in-law was in New York during the attacks. In fact, it was a frantic phone call from him that first alerted me to the unfolding horrors. It took him days to return to Texas after all flights were grounded.
And I like the idea of suspending electronic services for an appropriate amount of time to remind those who've forgotten, and those too young to really know, that today is important and must remain top of mind.
@M. Mitchell Marmel- Oh, no. I am so very sorry. The "ripple" effects of the actual attack were huge (seismic, in fact) and have seemingly never stopped spreading. Damn...
@Bobo the Hobo- I was never a big fan of the appearance of the towers, but my God they've left a big hole in the skyline...
@james daily- You're right that we've never had (and likely never will) a satisfactory resolution for the attacks. Too many players and too many agendas for things as simple as truth and justice to prevail.
@j- I, too, have the memories burned into me. Eighteen years seems an impossibility. And yes, I think of Benghazi today and it adds to my frustration and rage. Or how about Hillary Clinton appearing in the well of the Senate only days after the 9/11 attacks holding up a newspaper headline claiming: "BUSH KNEW!" Sweet mother of pearl, I detest that bitch.
@Emmentaler Limburger- The historic ignorance of our younger generations strikes me as an inevitable death knell for this country. I hope I'm wrong, but 9/11 is perhaps my least optimistic day of the year.
@Geoff King- So true. The bastards on those jets changed America (for the worse) more than they could have hoped for in their perverted dreams.
@Fred Ciampi- I believe both sentiments are appropriate.
@Grana- I'm afraid that Ilhan Omar is not the only person who thinks of 9/11 in terms of "someone did something." It's no more real or immediate to today's young than the Boston Tea Party or Lincoln's assassination. For them, it's not a still open wound - it's a somewhat dusty factoid.
@Alej- All Muslims aren't to blame for these attacks, or for terrorism in general. That being said, I believe that there is far too wide a swath of dangerous radicalism and anti-Western thought in Islam, and pretending that this isn't the case (as the Left and media do) is a serious mistake.
@TrickyRicky- Agreed.
@hrm- That's more than anyone should have to cope with on a single day. I'm genuinely sorry.
I really wasn't going to reply today since my feelings, recollections and actions of that day are no more salient or insightful than anyone else's. That is, until I saw this:
New York Times Says ‘Airplanes Took Aim at World Trade Center’ on 9/11
In a tweet, (since deleted) "The far-left New York Times reports it was “airplanes” that took aim at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 — not Islamic terrorists."
That's right. Just like guns are responsible for murder instead of criminals, airplanes that "took aim" were responsible for 9/11 instead of Muslims & Saudi nationals. I'm almost surprised there were no calls for bans on 250-seat assault airliners.
At least Ilhan Omar gives "some people" credit for this evil terror. (I bet she's kicking herself this morning for not saying "some airplanes did something".
Another example of America's supposed "newspaper of record" working overtime to erase history. At least they felt some sense of shame or embarrassment and deleted the tweet.
I may have made the following observation on this forum in the past, but I'll mention it now anyway. On the outskirts of Jerusalem is a 9/11 memorial. I've heard it said that this is the only 9/11 memorial in the Middle East. I'm not sure that that is strictly true. However, I am pretty certain that it's the only Middle East memorial to the VICTIMS of 9/11.
Never forget and never forgive.
(Alej at 8:24-- "why do people insist on the 'q' in that word...." The Hebrew alphabet has 2 different letters which both sound essentially like an English "k". Some people when transliterating Hebrew represent the one letter with a "k" and the other letter with a "q", especially since the distinction between the 2 Hebrew letters can make a difference in meaning. I suppose there may be a similar consideration vis-a-vis Arabic.)
Just curious, has anyone checked the websites of the House Gang of Four to see what they have to say on this anniversary?
What He Said.
Too damn many questions unanswered. I believe the government's account of what happened on 9/11 as much I believe the Warren Commission report on JFK's assassination. And I saw the footage of Building 7 dropping neatly into its footprint, before it was scrubbed from the internet. If that wasn't a controlled demolition, then I'm a ring-tailed marmoset.
@John the Econ- I just heard the NY Times tweet on Rush Limbaugh, and pretty much lost my shit. If 9/11 was just about airplanes and buildings, then what's the big deal - right?! I honestly need to stop for a minute and do meditative breathing to get my pulse rate down. Really.
@Maoz- Israel "gets it."
@Fish Out of Water- I'd risk an aneurysm by checking.
@Sergio- Yes.
@Old Cannonballs- I'm not a conspiracy type, but I have to concede that Building 7, especially, is problematic for me. Are there any other video or incidences of such buildings collapsing so perfectly? I genuinely don't know. The whole damn thing makes me sick.
@Readers- Here's a pretty good article from Popular Mechanics debunking some 9/11 myths.
Not much to add here, but this... Everyone please make an effort to educate your kids, grandkids and great grandkids about what happened, the reason it happened, and mostly, to be wary of the kind of animals that were behind it.
Our country, schools, society, and even our government are being slowly infiltrated with people who want to see us dead. They are not waving guns in the air or physically cutting peoples' throats, but have rather chosen to come in through the front door bearing faux smiles and empty offers of friendship. I pray their numbers never get high enough to take over here like they have in so many other places you'd never expect.
I don't want my grandkids to be racists or judge people by their appearance, but I also do not want them to wake up one day living in a place like Afghanistan or Iran when the mask comes off.
@Stilton Jarlsberg - I remember when Popular Mechanics first came up with its attempt to debunk "conspiracy theorists" regarding the possibility of a controlled demolition being responsible for the collapse of the WTC buildings. I remember also that some apparent experts, with fancy initials like PhD after their names, contested a number of specific assertions in their argument, debunking the would-be debunkers, as it were.
There are too many question about 9/11 still unanswered. And many people tell me in private that they don't believe the governmental/mainstream media story for a second, but they are unwilling to say anything about it in public for fear of possible consequences. They reason that if it was a false-flag operation intended to facilitate the implementation of a police state, then it would behoove them to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.
It doesn't help matters that the most visible person questioning the govermental/mainstream media conclusions is a shoot-from-the-lip manic whose hair seems to always be on fire.
Please excuse the second post, I just realized I said the Chrysler Building was Beaux Arts, it's not; it's Art Deco. I really have to stop posting before coffee!
As a welding engineer with 50+ years, I had good knowledge of the WTC 1 & 2 and the construction of same. Whenever someone tells me that the destruction of the towers was an 'inside job' I ask them if they know what kind of HSLA steel was used in the construction, what the transformation temperature of said steel is, what the tensile temperature is at both room temperature and elevated temperatures. I likened the collapse to one taking a light bulb and dropping it on a hard surface from one inch. Dropping the same light bulb from six inches would produce a different result. I also ask if they know what inertia means. I usually get a 'deer in the headlights' look.
If explosives were placed on every floor like some folks say, it would have taken over 32 tons to take down each tower. In addition, the explosives would have to be in the form of shaped charges placed right on the exterior beams. To accomplish this would take many workers many weeks working with jackhammers and other noisy tools. I do not think that would have gone unnoticed.
The terrorists who planned all this had engineering knowledge and knew about things such as inertia, compressive forces, and the fact that steel weakens with a rise in temperature; just heat it up and let gravity take over.
Never forget, never forgive.
@Colby Muenster- Very well said.
@Old Cannonballs- I'm an ignoramus when it comes to engineering, but I find an "inside job" almost impossible to believe simply because a lot of people would have to be involved...and not one of them, in 18 years, would break their silence? Or was everyone suicided, after which their killers were suicided, on and on until no one knows what the hell secret is even being covered up? I'm going to continue to believe that the attack is exactly what it appeared to be.
@Bobo the Hobo- Happily, this is Stilton's Place rather than Architectural Digest!
@Fred Ciampi- Very well explained. The little light bulb came on for me quite some time ago when a metalworker posted a Youtube video of steel heated to the temperature of the fires in the twin towers: he was able to easily bend it (with gloved hands). It hadn't melted...but it had lost load bearing capability. And as you point out, inertia and gravity are pretty hellacious in the wrong circumstances.
The 9/11 conspiracy theorists really tick me off when they spout their uneducated drivel about the Pentagon. First, they are telling all of us who know exactly what an airplane looks like and a missile (not even close in profile, by the way) that we did not see what we saw. Good thing they're always online, as I really, really want to knock 'em upside the head with a 2x4 on general principles. Second, they have no clue about mass -- they've never been to the Pentagon so they do not know it's sheer mass. Yes, it can absorb an entire airliner without going through all five rings. Because the building had originally been built of extra thick concrete (rebar being in short supply), as in the floors alone were four feet thick, when the plane hit, the affected area absorbed the plane, the fuel, and the explosion. The plane made it all the way through three rings, directly through my old office; the two inner rings were untouched. The heat from the resultant fire eventually destroyed the cohesion in all that concrete, and the area just slid down. It was kind of graceful in a way.
I was walking into my boss' office, looking at the Pentagon, when that plane flew into the second of its five above ground floors. Red flash, black smoke, fire – but no sound, save my co-worker screaming, “Oh, my God! The Pentagon!” The concussion sent a "kerwhump" through our building, one mile due south of the Pentagon. We were two days away from moving back into that part.
The fireball went down corridor 4, on one side of our renovated space. My new office was on the other side of the G-2 space, off corridor 3, and the sprinklers worked instantly. None of our stuff was damaged by fire, but the water destroyed it. Had we already been moved in, I would have gotten very wet; my friend might have gotten burned. The generals would have died.
We moved back in a couple weeks short of a year later. The contractors working on the building renovation were personally insulted, and the drive to take down the damaged part and rebuild it and the destroyed part they'd just finished remodeling was amazing to see. They would have worked 24/7, except the bosses periodically kicked them off site to get some rest. What had taken almost four years to renovate was rebuilt from the ground up in less than one year.
It's a fascinating building, far more massive than most people realize. Although not specifically built as a fortress, it survived a devastating attack with less than 1/5 of it damaged.
@ Stilton et. al.
If case you haven't seen this already: https://www.foxnews.com/us/9-11-anniversary-mourner-who-lost-mother-in-attacks-criticizes-ilhan-omars-some-people-did-something-comment
And I just watched on the National Geo channel, have no idea if it is a rebroadcast or new, but it was an interview with George Bush about 9/11 and was moved by his eloquence and dept of thinking, which during his Presidency, he was ridiculed about, and cannot imagine how the worst electoral mistake since the peanut farmer from Plains, Ga would have described/reacted on that day had it happened on his watch, nor Al Bore who came within a whisker of being President on 9/11.
"Moslim congresswoman.". That right there tells us that we didn't learn anything from 11 September 2001.
I have said many times, since right after the planes hit, that if algore had been president on September 11 2001, he would have apologized to Usama bin Laden and given him a billion dollars (or like Barack Hussein with Iran, maybe 150 billion dollars). I absolutely believe algore would have blamed America first. Like so many Demo_Rats, he's an America-hating, scum-sucking, self-righteous elitist pig.
Hi folks!
To quote George Carlin--
It's all bullshit and it's bad for ya!
Just sayin.'
I never bought the narrative.
Especially about WTC7.'
Get real.
We were all 'had.'
^Seek psychiatric help.
@MAJ Arkay- Thank you for your very special insights into that awful day, and your knowledge about the Pentagon itself. And if I haven't said it before, thank you for your service!
@REM1875- I absolutely agree. There is a limit to what an outside aggressor can do to our country...but there's no limit to the damage that can be done by a deliberately misinformed populace.
@Sortahwitte- I worked nights for only a few weeks and it was awful. Even without national tragedies.
@Fish Out of Water- Before I forget to mention it, screw Ilhan Omar. I, too, believe that George Bush was the man we needed in the wake of 9/11. When he was Vice President, Al Gore was once sent to Florida to give a comforting speech to people who had lost everything in sweeping wildfires. Rather than give them empathy and support, Gore lectured them on how much environmental damage was being done by the airborne particulate matter which had previously been everything they owned.
@Ominous Cowherd- I believe that the desire to placate Muslims was one of the things that gave the presidency to Barack HUSSEIN Obama, with his Muslim upbringing. Not that it helped.
@JustaJeepGuy- I agree. Gore would have caved immediately.
@Anonymous- We'll just have to agree to disagree on this point.
@MAX Redline- Never a bad idea.
@Stilton: Read a news story of perhaps last week, that someone, and not her husband, may have have been screwing Ilhan Omar...........
I'm an Australian engineer. I was in the US at a military base installing an air defence radar to be used against terrorist attacks on that day. I saw it happen on TV, and then my work became much more urgent and important.
Goddamn those creatures and all like them to be boiled in bacon fat for eternity.
I will never forget, or ever forgive.
Post a Comment